Square Enix Loops
by Tovath
Summary: More tales of the Infinite Loops. This time featuring Square Enix characters. Part of the Infinite Loops Project.


Square Enix Infinite Loops

Chapter One Activations and Awakenings

Disclaimer: All of the characters belong to Square Enix. The original idea for the infinite loops comes from Innortal and later codified by Saphroneth. I think that's everything...Oh yes Spacebattles is who hosts the Infinite Loops threads.

-o-

1.1 The World Ends With You (Eathlome)

Neku grimaced as he moved, feeling the asphalt grind into his back.

_'Wait… asphalt?'_

Opening his eyes, Neku quickly looked around as he got up. The giant TV screens gracing the surrounding buildings and the 104 Building in the distance confirmed where he was. Reading the message on one of the screens, Neku rolled his eyes.

_'Time limit within 7 Days. Wow, subtle.'_

He knew that he had somehow ended up back in the Reapers' Game, but he couldn't remember dying or accepting the chance to play again.

_'Is that my price for this round? My entry fee is the memory of my entry fee?'_

Neku started to run towards the Hachiko Statue, trying to figure out what could have happened. He remembered sitting at WildKat, waiting for Shiki, Beat and Rhyme to arrive. He had just ordered a House Blend, then… nothing. Neku started as his phone rang, and he quickly grabbed it and skimmed over the message.

"104, Reapers, erasure. 4 weeks now, can't they come up with…"

He trailed off, noticing the date on his phone. It was a date he remembered very well, the first day of his first Game.

"What the HELL!"

-o-

1.2 Tomb Raider (Moonlight Crescent)

Lara Croft slammed back another shot, as she struggled to make sense of her day.

Last night, she'd gone to sleep in her mansion. Next thing she knew, she was in Calcutta, and she hoped that the hotel was just too cheap to replace calendars. As unlikely as that was...

"What's a man gotta do to get that kinda attention from you?"

Lara grit her teeth as Larsson dropped a familiar magazine on the bar in front of her.

"Is this some kind of twisted joke..." she growled, one hand moving onto her holster. "You should be dead..."

Larsson raised an eyebrow in confusion, backing away slightly. "I guess I caught you at a bad time..." he said, raising his hands in surrender. "I'd come back again tomorrow, but I doubt Miss Natla'd foot that kinda bill..." he chuckled, before the screen of the laptop he'd placed down blurred into life.

"Seal it, Larsson..."

The laughter died down, as Larsson took another step back. "Ma'am."

"Feast your ey..." Natla started into her nostalgic speech, only to be very quickly interrupted.

"Let me guess, Peru, Unfound tomb of Qualopec, Piece of the scion? Sorry, but I've been down this rabbit hole before," Lara said, rising from her stool, walking out of the bar. "Find yourself another stooge, I know why you want it, and I'm not just going to let you have it."

"Well that is a shame." Natla said, the screen going dead. The next thing Lara heard was the click of a gun's hammer, and an echoing bang. After that, everything went black...

...Only for her to spring upright in bed. A familiar bed. The hotel room she'd booked only the night before.

A quick glance at the days papers told an unsettling story. Somehow, it was yesterday again. Which meant the events of the day before weren't a fluke. She was traveling in time.

The magazine landed on the table in front of her once again.

"What's a man gotta do to get that kinda attention from you?"

A smile spread across her lips as a thought occurred to her. _Well, I know how this is going to go. Might as well have some fun with it..._

"It's hard to say really..."

-o-

1.3 Legacy of Kain (Bladedracke101)

Raziel's eyes shot open, quickly bolting to his feet, he drew a long ragged breath, his body shuddering as memory's of what had happened along with his sacrifice to give Kane the power to see and slay the Elderitch Parasite, flashed through his mind, he closed his eyes and calmed his mind, "This is.. odd, I was sure that would be my end, I suppose I should count my blessings, as that Parasite is now dead" he sighed, slowly opening his eyes, which widen, seeing where he now stood, his blue skeletal like frame froze, "No... NO! Impossible!" he yelled, body turning as he heard the deep echoing voice of the Monster he had given his life to destroy, he growled as it said "I know you Raziel, You are worthy."

Raziel looked up at the parasitic squid like creature with hate filled eyes "How did you survive! I gave my life to Kane, so the we could destroy you! I should be trapped within the Soul Reaver, What Vile...!" he looked down, thinking hard before hissing out "Moebius! I do not know how you lived, but You Are Behind This!, Show yourself coward! So I can rip you apart!" he screamed, unconsciously summoning his Sword, looking around in anger, but flinching back as he looked down at his arm, smiling fondly at the ghostly blue blade in his his grip. "At least you are still by my side, Brother, Now we will go and find the twisted old Time Streamer, and make his life a living hell!". 

-o-

1.4 Life is Strange/Admins(Vadrigar)

"Wow."

This was the only word Zurvan could say. The Zoroastrian Admin of Time double checked his monitor to see if what he was looking at was happening, and confirmed that, indeed, this Loop was borked. Screwed. Fucked, if he could be so crude. The girl who was set to be its Anchor, one Maxine Caulfield, had mysteriously acquired the ability to travel back in time on Monday, and had nearly brought her town to ruin and destroyed her universe's space-time continuum by Friday. Not a bad record if one assumed she was _intentionally_ trying to do so.

"What is it Zurvan-sensei?"

Zurvan looked down to see a small calico cat with a train conductor's hat. His sometimes-apprentice was playing with a ball of what appeared to be soggy yarn.

"Well Tama, remember how one of your Loops had dimensional rift troubles?"

"Yep! It was awful! But thank you again for sorting it out."

"You don't have to keep thanking me. But here, take a look at this Loop. Starts out simple enough, but by the end of it there's a near-complete breakdown of reality."

Tama jumped onto Zurvan's lap and took a look at his screen. True enough, the Anchor had used her abilities to mess with time too much, and the resulting mess of code was hard to look at without getting a headache.

"Oh my gosh, that's awful! What should we do? Can you fix it? Will everyone be okay?"

"Whoa whoa, one question at a time. But to answer them in order, we should Quarantine or Safe-Mode it until it's workable, probably but it would take time, and I don't know right now."

Tama tried to look harder at the screen, and saw a young woman doing everything in her power to save her best friend, along with everyone else. In the end, she had to make extraordinarily difficult decisions. Tama instantly felt sympathy for the poor girl.

"Oh please Sensei, don't Quarantine it. At least make her a Traveling Looper, she needs all the help she can get!"

Zurvan thought about this for a few moments. "Traveling, huh? Well, that might be able to-"

"YOU!"

Zurvan swung around in his seat, taking Tama with him. They laid their eyes upon a floating mass of noodles and suspicious sauce, with large eyeballs poking out on the top of the pile. It had half shouted, half gargled at them. Zurvan instantly got a headache at the thought of interacting with it, but Tama was more than willing to respond with kindness.

"Hello Flying Spaghetti Monster-chan! How are you today?"

"Do not play coy with me child, I know it was thou who took some of my precious flesh to dine with!"

"You mean my yarn ball? But I found it under my desk!"

"Irrelevant! I insist that you return it to me henceforth! Or thine punishment will be the most severe your race has seen in eons!"

Zurvan had long since decided to not get involved and prolong this argument. Tama did not have the same intuition.

"Okay, you can have it back to play with. And I'm not a child anymore, at least I don't think so. How old are you?"

"FOOL. I have existed since the dawn of the Great Tree, and I shall exist when The End comes for us all! I have existed far longer than your tiny mind can comprehend! Dost thou have any idea who-"

"She's asleep."

"WHAT."

"She's. Asleep."

"Why do they always fall asleep at the best part of my speech?"

-o-

1.5 Life is Strange(Vadrigar)

Max Caulfield, photographer and time traveller extrordinaire, liked to think of herself as more sane and rational than a majority of Loopers she met. She was determined to keep it together long enough to get back home one day and see her friends and family again. They didn't need to have someone close to them go insane for seemingly no reason.

Unfortunately for Max, the Loops were not making this goal easy.

She was currently running through an experimental scientific facility with an armored, armed and eccentric scientist whom she had only met once before, during a poker game no less. This in and of itself was not all that maddening, all things considered. No, what was maddening was the fact that they were being chased by and army of heavily armed and armored sentient cats who had sentient earthworms for fingers.

From what Max had picked up, a majority of the earthworms were named George.

Gordon and Max rounded a corner and were eventually able to lose the cats in the ridiculous layout of Black Mesa. As they caught their breath, Gordon quickly reloaded and pulled two water bottles out of his Pocket, giving one to Max.

"So, enjoying your free tour of Black Mesa?"

"Yeah, of course, who wouldn't enjoy this?!"

"Dog people, probably."

"HOW ARE YOU SO CASUAL ABOUT THIS."

"The morphine definitely helps."

Max Caulfield, photographer and time traveler extraordinaire, had long since deduced that she was one of the few sane people left in the Multiverse.

-o-

1.6 The World Ends With You (Eathlome)

Neku stared up into the sky, laying in the middle of Shibuya's Scramble Crossing, thinking. He had completed his three week Reaper's Game four more times and had failed so many more. His own carelessness, a lucky hit from one of the Game Masters, and an endless stream of Taboo Noise had all caused him to be Erased, but he still would just wake up on the first day of his first game.

This wasn't Joshua's doing, he had just been too blatantly shocked when Neku had confronted him, calling him the Composer. That was another way that he had died, without Joshua there hadn't been any Players to form a contract with, leaving him Noise food.

Hanekoma didn't know what was happening either. He always showed up after the second mission, giving Neku a good opportunity to question him. Revealing his knowledge about the game between Josh and the Conductor was usually enough to get the Cafe owner looking into things, but nothing would turn up before everything reset.

Neku sighed as he lifted his hand above his head, looking at the number on his palm count down.  
_00:04  
00:03  
00:02  
00:01  
00:00_

Neku heard the change as the world refreshed, the sounds of Shibuya jumping like two similar songs that had been spliced together. Pushing himself to his feet, Neku slipped a hand into his pocket and pulled out the seven pins he had thrown away the last time his first Game started.

"Always these ones." Neku muttered, "Couldn't let me keep the Eden pins, it's gonna be a pain getting all my Psychs back..."

Trailing off, a thought sparked in his mind.

_'Do I really need the pins to use my Psychs? I'm pretty sure that Koki and Uzuki don't, and I know that Joshua doesn't... Not that I'm Composer class, but as far as I can tell I only get to keep what I know. And there's plenty of time to learn.'_

Maybe he'd eventually figure out how to use all his Psychs without a pin and outside of battle, and if not, at least he'd have a goal to work towards. Something to help him stay balanced. Slipping all except one of his pins back into his pocket, Neku examined the skull motif on it before flipping it into the air.

"Now let's see how you work."

The Player Pin landed in Neku's hand, and a torrent of thoughts washed over him. 

-o-

1.7 Valkyrie Profile (Tovath)

"Is getting my armor fitted the new euphemism for having sex?"

Radgird turned to see the commander of the Valkyries, Freya. She looked mad. Radgird glanced guiltily at her Valkyrie armor laying discarded on the floor along with her shirt..

"You should both be punished for this."

Radgird's lover, Brigid, looked very mulish. "It is not the job of anyone in your pantheon to punish me."

"True in order to punish you, I would have to go before the Council. It would be a bit of a mess since no one has time for it. No room for poetry to save you and harsher punishments... or you could take over a loop that an intern misassigned me. In that case, I'll have Radgrid assigned as your assistant." ah, so the commander's whole plan from the start to make a deal.

Undoubtedly Brigid was smart enough to see that too. "What is this Loop and why don't you want it?"

"It's called Valkyrie Profile. I can't be the Admin for it because the "Freya" of that world is an antagonistic force. If I was to try to administrate that loop, the Loopers of it would crash the loop just because I said not to."

"Whereabouts I will have no trouble with them because I can call you an idiot all day." Brigid smirked, "Alright, let me look at the coding and talk with a few people."

Freya did not raise to the bait. She was serious.

Once Freya left and they were again fully clothed, Radgrid said "I'll head over to Hephaestus to talk to my sisters. They should know enough to help."

"Good idea. I'm going to go see Nuada." replied Brigid. "Meet in an hour or so."

"Sure"

xxx

Nuada was looking at data on two different screens when Brigid came in. "Are you busy?"

"Ah Brigid, good to see you. I just found a few universes that are connected to the Loop I admin. It is not time sensitive at the moment." He turned and grinned. "So, why are you here? I doubt it is just to chat."

Brigid took a deep breath and started to explain what had happened. When she was finished Nuada shock his head and said "Man, people are going to start thinking that beings from our Pantheon only get Loops because someone is mad at them. Not that it matters. Let's take a look at the loop code." He brought up the code and spent a few minutes reviewing it."Well there seems to be one major problem but it is not unsolvable. You see what you have here," he pointed at a bit of code, "is two alternate time lines. These two time lines are bound together, yet they go in different directions. Likely this is because someone in the Loop decided to do a bit pf time travel. My suggestion would be to start the two parts separately and then knit them back together by activating one of the two loopers that are in both parts."

xxx

"Here is the code that you will need."

Radgird had not really expected to get help from Hephaestus when she came to her sister Valkyrie, even if he was sleeping with all three of them. "Thank you."

"You will, of course -" Tama prowled in with her fur sticking straight up."Time to get back to work."

Radgird was tempted to stay and find out what had happened, but Brigid would be waiting for her.

xxx

-START UNIVERSE, DESIGNATION "VALKYRIE PROFILE" Y?N

Y

STARTING PART A ANCHOR, RUFUS

Rufus smiled, had Alicia really been this timid when they first met. "Why don't you sit down. You look tired."

STARTING PART B ANCHOR, LENNETH

Lenneth Awoke to see the first of her Einherjar, Arngrim alive again arguing with his brother about the uses of painting.

-o-

1.8 Valkyrie Profile (Tovath)

Rufus was getting tired of time repeating. He was also tired of Alicia not knowing him. But this time there was a young man wearing a red tunic and a green bandana sitting in a corner. Next to him a long black staff was leaning against the wall. The most interesting thing about him was that Rufus had never seen him before. _Was he connected to Lezard or Odin...or was the source of the repeats something else?_

"Who are you?" he asked the man.

"Oh, I am just someone looking for an anchor." He seemed to put an odd emphasis on the last word.

"So, you are a sailor then. I'm afraid the ships won't be running for awhile."

"I am only a sailor on the seas of time."

_Well nothing for it then._ "Do you know why time is repeating?"

"Yes, Yggdrasil, the World Tree that supports the whole multiverse is broken."

That was quite a statement. "Really, I have climbed Yggdrasil and it didn't look at all damaged."

"Not that Yggdrasil. The multiverse is so large that some names get used more then once." He took a drink of his beer. "There are at least four different beings called Odin in the multiverse for example. None of them are at all alike."

He might have said more but Alica came in the door.

xxx

The girl had an odd aura, thought Tir. It felt a bit like Soul Eater - he knew that feeling anywhere, what with ending up as it's bearer so much of the time – but there was both a duality and a feeling of settleness in it. "I take it that we will have to continue this later." he said, then in a lower tone asked "So who is the girl?"

"She is two people. Alicia, princess of Dipan, and Silmeria Valkyrie." He did not have time to say any more as the girl approached them and asked if they would like to come with her.

-o-

1.9 Tomb Raider (Moonlight Crescent)

Lara ejected the spent clips from her handguns as she started to feel the tremors from the incoming tyrannosaur.

_No idea why these still work on something that big..._ she thought, as she slid in fresh clips. _But I'm not complaining..._

When the creature finally came into view, a look of confusion spread across her face. After all, the tyrannosaur didn't usually have giant frills on it's back. It also wasn't usually some strange combination of purple and green.

At least those were things she could accept.

The giant fake mustache, however...

"I'm not sure whether I should shoot you," she said to herself. "Or just let you eat me and start again...again."

"Eh, I'm not really big on eating things that disagree with me..." Spike quipped back. "And Fluttershy'd probably go mental if she found out I'd even tried..."

Lara's eye twitched, and her arms fell to her sides. "You can talk!?"

Spike looked down at the irate treasure hunter. "Well, yeah..." he said, before slapping a claw into his face. "OK, I thought I knew the answer, but now I'm not so sure... does time repeating sound familiar to you, or are you just crazy?"

"I'm starting to think it might be both..." Lara replied, sitting down on a convenient rock. "I am talking to a dinosaur, after all..."

"Dragon."

"...Sure, let's go with dragon. Why not?"

"And how about Yggdrasil?"

"The World Tree," Lara said, an eyebrow raised in a combination of interest and confusion. "What does Norse Myth have to do with this?"

"Well, looks like I get to give this speech," Spike said, a grin spreading across his face. He reached behind him, pulling a scroll out of thin air. Seeing Lara's twitch return, he laughed sheepishly. "It's been awhile, kinda need the summary..." he explained, before scanning down the page. "Let's see... I know you're looping..." he said to himself, as he tried to find a good start point. "Ah, this should do..." he made a show of clearing his throat, before putting on an upper class British accent. "Now, I know you're wondering what _caused _these loops in the first place..."

***

Spike rolled the scroll up, replacing it into his Pocket, before turning back to his audience. "...Any questions?"

Lara sighed before responding. "...No, although I'm still reserving the right to think I'm crazy."

"You're not the first, probably won't be the last..." Spike said, shrinking down to an appropriate size give her comforting pat on the shoulder. "Look, I get this can all be a bit intimidating at first. If there's anything you want me to do, let me know. Otherwise, I'll just let you get on with whatever it is you do around here..."

Lara sat in thought for a few minutes. "Look, the way I see it, I'm either crazy, in which case why not do what I want..."

"Which is a dangerous mindset to have..." Spike said with his arms crossed. "As I _just_ finished explaining."

"...Or you're telling the truth," Lara continued as though Spike hadn't even interrupted. "Which means this'll be a rare opportunity to make things a _lot_ easier on myself."

"How so?"

"Tell me..." Lara said, before pausing. "Spike, was it?"

The dragon nodded.

"Tell me then, Spike..." Lara repeated, a smirk spreading across her face. "Can you fly?"

***

Lara and Spike watched as Marco Bartoli transformed into a dragon.

"Let me guess..." Spike said, his voice thick with sarcasm. "My turn?"

"Well, if you insist..."

Spike rolled his eyes, before dropping into the arena-like room. He very quickly grew to match his opponents size. However, while Marco's first blast of dragon fire merely washed over Spike's scales, the return volley had a very interesting effect...

"Is the knife meant to glow like that..." Spike yelled over the ominous rumbling. "I don't feel like it's meant to glow like that."

"No, it's not..." Lara replied. Then everything flashed white.

***

When Lara opened her eyes, she could tell things weren't quite right. Looking down she realized why.

_Alright, those things are ridiculous..._ she thought to herself, before turning round at the sound of heavy footsteps behind her. A very short girl with a familiarly colored mohican had stormed up to her, and looked ready to breathe fire. Or at least vent smoke from her ears...

"Just so you know, if I ever visit your world again, I am _not_ listening to your ideas..."

***

Neith stared at her screen in disbelief, before her head collided with her keyboard. Repeatedly.

"Less than ten iterations, and she's already gotten herself in Eiken... What did I get myself in for?" 

-o-

1.10 Valkyrie Profile (Tovath)

Lina started the loop as she always did, by being attacked by bandits. They were, as normal, a bit annoyed at her for the whole her coming in and taking all their treasure thing. There was no need for them to get so upset.

Normally Gourry would show up about now, but instead of the familiar long haired blonde lunk, a man with short brown hair that killed the bandits.

"So who are you?" asked Lina, a bit annoyed that her, err, boyfriend would likely not be around this loop.

"Arngrim."

"What no last name?"

"I'm not a noble." Arngrim said with a scowl, "but some of my memories are saying that I do have one and it's Gabriev."

"Don't worry that just your in-loop memories. Said Lina while thinking _Yep, no Gourry this loop._ "I'm the beautiful sorceress, Lina Inverse. I will explain everything. I expect you to be good enough at Pockets to take the Sword of Light with you when you are done here."

-o-


End file.
